Posted on 11/27/2023 1:23:45 AM PST by RandFan
New Zealand’s new government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts – a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be “catastrophic” for Māori communities.
In 2022 the country passed pioneering legislation which introduced a steadily rising smoking age to stop those born after January 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes. The law was designed to prevent thousands of smoking-related deaths and save the health system billions of dollars.
The legislation, which is thought have inspired a plan in the UK to phase out smoking for future generations, contained a slew of other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible. It included dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products, allowing their sale only through special tobacco stores, and slashing the number of stores legally allowed to sell cigarettes from 6,000 to just 600 nationwide.
The laws were due to be implemented from July 2024. But as part of its coalition agreement with populist New Zealand First, National agreed to repeal the amendments, including “removing requirements for de-nicotisation, removing the reduction in retail outlets and the generation ban”.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Now lets hope the UK ditches theirs.
This is WEF nonsense I think.
They might have been more successful if they’d gone to a no-additives tobacco mix.
The Biden Administration is on the road to banning tobacco, they are starting with banning Menthol Cigarettes.
One of the reasons I’ve never smoked is once you’ve worked in a tobacco field picking tobacco you realize anything that nasty when you pick it, can’t be good for you to smoke, chew, dip, etc.
I totally agree. The locals here have started selling pure additive-free cigarettes for at least a year and my COPD hasn’t gotten any worse, and darker sputum means the tobacco is helping me detoxify.
Prove me wrong without pulling numbers out of your ass and calling them “Statistics”.
The Maori aren't children except to you libs, apparently. Why didn't they ban alcohol while they were at it being nannies? I'll bet that's at least as big a problem with the natives as well. Oh well, none of that matters now.
Even the Indians know that menthol deficiency is the real problem. That’s why it’s so easy to get cigarettes India; they know that menthol is works best when inhaled. Nicotine cough drops don’t drop coughs; all they do is make you jumpy.
I hate cigarettes, but as it turns out, nicotine prevents the spike proteins from binding. Rendering the COVID virus impotent. Chew on that one.
No way- mushrooms grow in SHIT and they’re my go-to when I combine them with Dead Cow Muscle & Kidney Stew.
That’s why I NEVER got COVID. All the hype about Budesonide was nothing but Big Pharma Propaganda.
Not really - it’s tied to medical insurance.
Whether it is a single payer (state health care) or private, the fact is that smokers will draw out “more” healthcare costs.
Smoking does increase your chances of lung cancer and other diseases, that’s not really disputable. And if it was just “your problem”, it shouldn’t matter. But it’s not just “your problem” - it also
1. increases the medical costs for everyone else
2. has second hand smoking effects for non-smokers.
The first can be managed by charging higher premiums for smokers (though insurance companies already do this), the second can’t be managed well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7889469/
Abstract
Changeux et al. (Changeux et al. C. R. Biol. 343:33–39.) recently suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein may interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and that such interactions may be involved in pathology and infectivity. This hypothesis is based on the fact that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein contains a sequence motif similar to known nAChR antagonists. Here, we use molecular simulations of validated atomically detailed structures of nAChRs and of the spike to investigate the possible binding of the Y674-R685 region of the spike to nAChRs. We examine the binding of the Y674-R685 loop to three nAChRs, namely the human α4β2 and α7 subtypes and the muscle-like αβγδ receptor from Tetronarce californica. Our results predict that Y674-R685 has affinity for nAChRs. The region of the spike responsible for binding contains a PRRA motif, a four-residue insertion not found in other SARS-like coronaviruses. The conformational behavior of the bound Y674-R685 is highly dependent on the receptor subtype; it adopts extended conformations in the α4β2 and α7 complexes but is more compact when bound to the muscle-like receptor. In the α4β2 and αβγδ complexes, the interaction of Y674-R685 with the receptors forces the loop C region to adopt an open conformation, similar to other known nAChR antagonists. In contrast, in the α7 complex, Y674-R685 penetrates deeply into the binding pocket in which it forms interactions with the residues lining the aromatic box, namely with TrpB, TyrC1, and TyrC2. Estimates of binding energy suggest that Y674-R685 forms stable complexes with all three nAChR subtypes. Analyses of simulations of the glycosylated spike show that the Y674-R685 region is accessible for binding. We suggest a potential binding orientation of the spike protein with nAChRs, in which they are in a nonparallel arrangement to one another.
Net-net
There is an association between cigarette smoking and increased severity of COVID-19.
NZ liberal pukes scrapped this ban ONLY because the “Māori communities” were bitching about it. They like smoke em peace pipe and their ciggies.
Remember 20-25-30 years ago California would have police roadblocks to find out and arrest drunk drivers? Their automobiles would be towed too. This all ended about 15 years ago when too many Hispanics/Mexicans were being arrested and their work vehicles (aka pickups) were being impounded. And the Hispanics did not have the cash to bail out their vehicles.
If they want to decrease deaths in New Zealand, they should stop issuing drivers licenses.
New Zealand has a lot of dangerous, winding, narrow roads. I have driven there several times. You drive on the left but the highways mostly are narrow and lack wide shoulders common in the USA.
Many rural highways have one-lane bridges. You have to yield to oncoming traffic at these bridges.
Kiwis drive WAAAY too fast for the roads they have.
ummmm cant be managed well?? name me a place you can go publicly and smoke!! Where the heck are you getting your second hand smoke these days?? you sound like a Karen whos using 20 year old talking points!
Just like the gas car bans fantasized for the future by these democrat pukes, they’ll go down the crapper too.
Why stop at charging more for insurance for smokers? Seniors cost more for everyone to take care of. Let’s charge them more. Overweight people need to be charged more. Underweight people need to be charged more. people with high blood pressure needs to be charged more. So on and so on. And by the way, secondhand smoke is a myth.
Come to Florida in the middle of June and July, stay bent over all day picking raw green tobacco and get all their sticky sap all over yourself which doesn’t wash off, plus all the fine angel hair thin fibers from the stalk in your arms then tell me what’s worse
Just kidding but picking tobacco is nasty hot work and is miserable to do
The Biden Administration doesn’t care
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4271411-biden-menthol-tobacco-ban/amp/
Actually, the smokers are good for society. Since they live shorter, they draw less social security and they do not need to be cured of the Old age diseases. So over all, they draw less money from insurances and Social security.
They are paying enormous taxes.
Many studies suggested that second hand smoke is harmless.
And even the harms of first hand smoking are exaggerated!
Due to massive propaganda, people, including smokers, think that smoking is a lot more harmful than it really is.
There are also some demonstrated profits from smoking.
It has been proven good antidote to Alzheimer and it is helping people with many psychiatric problems.
As this article is suggesting, it may be good for COVID too?!
I am not suggesting that people start smoking, but total ban on smokes is crazy.
Especially in the view of legalizing Marihuana and even harder drugs. Those all are a lot more harmful than the smokes!
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